1st time help please!

[Juggular 4964]

lol..

Don't get yourself killed, please.  A hobby shop won't do you any good, if you are the only one who's not singing 'Oh Danny Boy.'  

With some 3D parts, Flysky GT3C can be turned into that!  I really should learn how to 3D.  Aren't there normal folks like florists, booksellers, history teachers or baristas?  It seems like everybody can do 3D but me.  I would much prefer to be on the creating side...  

Anyway, 4WD is dutiful and predictable.  2WD is fun -- because it's got a sprinkle of a drift car in it.  If you master 2WD, 4WD is relatively easier.  DT03 and DT02 are abundant and cheap.  I would think that they'd make perfect Cessnas for racking up your flight time before piloting your Avante.  At the same time, you can get your feet wet in the contemporary Tamiya, and experiment with various sticky substances for the limited-slip-differential effect.  

 

[Pablo68 1049]

5 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

If you are looking at a basher as well in my opinion get a DT03 chassis buggy. The 2wd helps you learn to drive better (I now prefer that challenge to 4wd) and they are STUPID cheap. Neo Fighters can be had from German retailer for under £70 with a motor and ESC which is nuts. They are soooooo much nicer to drive than Hornets and the like,

 

YOU WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT!!!!!

(even if you are right)

[CJ Topspin 34]

9 hours ago, Lee76 said:

Now, I also like to be contrary.. perhaps I should start a poll for the the least loved and hardest to sell car and give that a home.

You wound me sir.  The Boomer is a magnificent machine.

[Bromley 681]

I'm still pushing the Blitzer Beetle from this corner, just because it's begging for some custom work. But I have to agree about the DT03, it is a good practice bed for fine tuning those skills. I have a DT03 Racing Fighter it's a blast to drive even in stock form(albeit with bearings).  It runs really well on grass with the stock tyres.

[Lee76 638]

18 hours ago, Bromley said:

I'm still pushing the Blitzer Beetle from this corner, just because it's begging for some custom work. But I have to agree about the DT03, it is a good practice bed for fine tuning those skills. I have a DT03 Racing Fighter it's a blast to drive even in stock form(albeit with bearings).  It runs really well on grass with the stock tyres.

I’m narrowing down to the blitzer, the monster beetle or possibly the frog as a first ‘basher-runner’ what blitzer non cosmetic mods would make the top 5 mod list?

[Juggular 4964]

Oh, the Frog might be a good idea.  Blitzer is a stadium truck, based on the Falcon, I think.  That's a class of its own.  

But the Frog/Blackfoot/Monster Beetle is a real classic.  The chassis is informally called ORV (Off-Road Vehicle...I know, not very clever).  The space frame is quite strong and rigid.  The front uses double wishbone with friction damping.  I would have loved it more if the front used one spring and a stabilizer bar, instead of the suspension shackles, for lack of better words.  

The rear has independent trailing arms.  Limiting the differential action is a bit problematic, because of the open-diff design.  I use thick grease like melted toffee (unfortunately, TC members have not been successful in shipping Bad Horsie Diff Lock to UK).  There must be something similar in UK, I just don't know enough about gooey stuff to suggest anything similar...

It's not the best car by any stretch of the imagination.  Quite definitely, it's clunky and awkward when compared to the finesse of the Avante.  I didn't think I thought of it highly.  Yet, I ran the vintage Blackfoot for years.  Then I bought Subaru Brat rerelease.  Then a re-release of Blackfoot, plus I have a Frog restoration project.  When did it multiply to 4?   It is just so... "TAMIYA."  

Oh, since Avante is on its way to you, (if you don't already have it) getting a Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) screwdriver might be a good idea.  

 

[Bromley 681]

I just can't get over the looks of the Frog. Too much in the chassis to body ratio. And I don't think either are real lookers. Wheels and tyres make me think Hornet, that makes me smile, so it's not all bad I suppose.

Sorry if I've offended any one, but god It's fugly.

[Lee76 638]

@Juggular

Avante was shipped toady, so hopefully in a few days I’ll have a box of goodies, good tip on the JIS, best get to some shopping!

Not having driven any kind of car before I’ve a lot to learn about diffs, with no point of reference knowing what’s good bad or normal will be a steep leaning curve. I guess that’s part of the fun and the eccentricity of Tamiya, a lot of people tell me not to touch tamiya as other brands are cheaper better engineered and drive better... I don’t care, as I said when I started this, it’s all about the dream...

When I get back to work I’ll ask some tame tribologists if they have any experience of the type of grease you’re referring to, if I can get any of the tech data of bad horsie I should be able to come up with an equivalent. I’ll let you all know if I do.

 

[Lee76 638]

@Bromley

I agree it would take a mother to love it for looks, I thought it’s cheap, looks quite robust and looks a little like the MB in the chassis so might be a good practice car.

[Lee76 638]

 

@Juggular

 

That video link led me right down the rabbit hole for a while, some dudes talking about their collection, tamiya heaven part 4.. some good kits on there. Anyone tried out the Nova fox?

[Juggular 4964]

1 hour ago, Lee76 said:

When I get back to work I’ll ask some tame tribologists if they have any experience of the type of grease you’re referring to, if I can get any of the tech data of bad horsie I should be able to come up with an equivalent. I’ll let you all know if I do.

Finding something similar would be a service to TC.  

There is no tech data at all.  I suppose they don't want to reveal any.  They simply claim "In fact, you will not find another grease stickier than this! " 

True to that, I haven't found anything stickier.  It doesn't want to spread.  It grabs.  As a grease or lubricant, it would be useless.  I think this is a kind of "protecting the surface" type of grease. Or to prevent a leakage.   As a Limited Slip Differential material, it's excellent.  Tamiya supplies a dab of AW (Anti-wear) grease with many cars.  For touring cars, AW grease is perfect.  For anything bigger, AW is better than regular grease, but bad horsie is much more stickier.  Since it sticks, there is a slightly less chance of differential spreading apart.   

 

Novafox is also a good choice.  It's a step-up from the Frog.  It still has the same type of open differential, but less prone to spread.  The old Fox had a less effective anti sway bar, but Novafox changed it for the better.  

Like all Tamiya, it has its own quirk.  The monocoque chassis has upper and lower chassis.  If you want to work on the car, inevitably, you'd have to disassemble the whole chassis.  That could be a bit of a hassle, so it'd be a good idea to put in all the bearings, and right grease, etc.  

Talking about bearings, the most common bearings Tamiya uses are 5x11x4mm bearings ($2 for 10 from China).  The second most common bearings are 5x8x2.5 bearings ($1 for 10).  Tamiya calls them 1150 and 850 bearings.  

 

[Lee76 638]

Hearing the description of that ‘adhesive grease’ reminds me of the anti tank grenades ‘sticky bombs’ it actually looks in the pictures a little like certain hair styling putty you can get. If I can get a sample I could get it analysed. For now I’ll just set some colleagues a non work related challenge I think they will enjoy..

[MICHAELs TopForce17 586]

I dont know much about the Avante but this build from Matteo may help when you assemble yours. Enjoy your Avante!

 

[Lee76 638]

@MICHAELs TopForce17 that definitely whet my appetite! Thanks.

 

[Juggular 4964]

3 hours ago, Lee76 said:

Hearing the description of that ‘adhesive grease’ reminds me of the anti tank grenades ‘sticky bombs’ it actually looks in the pictures a little like certain hair styling putty you can get. If I can get a sample I could get it analysed. For now I’ll just set some colleagues a non work related challenge I think they will enjoy..

You can get a sticky bomb and get it analyzed? That's so cool. (just kidding)  I imagined tar they put on a boat or something (doesn't tar harden? The yellowed one on the left is from 16 years ago, and it has the same consistency).  

Matteo is an excellent RCinematographer (ooh, I think I just made up a word! too bad it's a mouthful...).  Some of Tamiya USA pages featured Matteo's videos. Tamiya 74085 toolset he is using is also good. 

Videos are helpful. I learned not to cross-thread by watching @Pintopower's (AMPro Engineering) videos.  For those forum readers who are new and non-engineers... when you screw back in, get the screw in the hole, and unscrew first.  Feel the screw drop in, and then screw.  

 

[Lee76 638]

I’ll check out those @pintopower videos, you can never have too many tips! Well, apart from on car selection

There’s a doezen or more wrong ways to apply loctite alone so it’s always good to get some pointers from experienced builders.

[Lee76 638]

My Avante arrived today!!! Including all the trimmings required to build and run it.

[Jonathon Gillham 4607]

I've been following this thread, interesting idea to get a starter kit. I have the Novafox and Monster Beetle and noth are excellent backyard runners. Both have their quirks. Personally I think you need to factor in the MIP ball diff for the Monster Beetle, but its probably the better backyard runner of the 2. However this makes it about twice the cost of the Novafox.

The Novafox would be up there as one of the quickest Tamiya's in stock form though, its really light and noticably faster than my others. If you choose the Novafox then make sure you don't need the rx or servo out of it as you have to pretty much disassemble the whole car to get to them.

I have the Novafox next to the Boomerang and they look like non-identical twins, you should get those two as they look so good together.

[Lee76 638]

I’m inclined to agree Jonathon, the beetle and the nova fox are definitely on my hit list. Now I have my Avante, I’ll be locking my sights on one of those next!

[Yalson 514]

Hi Lee,

I imagine that you're already well down the track of deciding what you want, but I thought I'd add my tuppence anyway. I started off when I was a wee bairn with a Grasshopper 1, which I loved and was nigh-on indestructible, although it does suffer from the obvious limitations that such a simple machine will inevitably have as part of its DNA. The Hornet is better (they're basically the same car, although the Hornet has a few important upgrades) but still not much of a racer and not great on anything but the shortest grass. If it's a cricket pitch then you might get away with it, though. As long as the groundsman doesn't catch up with you.

I moved from the Hopper to a Kyosho Optima Mid, and then you're talking about a whole other world of RC wonder. Tamiya is not and never was the only fruit. If you get really stuck into this as a hobby then I would definitely recommend investigating the products of some of the other manufacturers: Kyosho, Marui, Associated, Schumacher and even exotics like Losi and Yokomo. All have their fans and their own unique quirks and all have models in their range which stand out.

And since you seem into the idea of having a beetle-bodied model which you can run on grass, I'll just leave this here to show there's more than one way to skin a cat.

[Lee76 638]

@Yalson

Thanks for that, You’re right, I’ve not considered anything from other manufacturers, Once I get my nostalgia fix and finish the Avante (you can check out my body trimming tips on another thread...) I’ll start looking for the second model as a scale runner, I like the look of that, it’s a good place to start some more research.

[geniusanthony 361]

I second anything from Kyosho's Legendary Series. The instructions and quality of the Optima was pretty amazing. Haven't unboxed my Avante or Egress yet so I can't comment on how they may compare. The scorpion was a pretty fun build as well. Just had to throw that in and encourage others to check out Kyosho at some point. If we keep buying, they may keep bringing back the oldies...

Ultima, Optima Mid, Javelin Turbo (I still need to get a Javelin, doh!)